Sony to put GameStop out of Business???

Could GameStop be headed towards the same fate as companies like Block Buster Video and Hollywood Video? Last year GameStop ended their year with a 5% loss in their stock. It is speculated that Sony has filed for a patent that would prevent any second hand game sales for the PS3 and Sony’s next generation console due to be announced sometime later this year. The price of GameStop’s company stock has gone up and down over the last six months with it rising before Christmas and dropping $1.30 a share after.

The Sony’s patent filing is believed to have played a major part in why GameStop’s stock fell so much at the end of the year. However many experts are saying that this isn’t something for us to be worried about and that most likely second hand game sales will continue to happen. Although Gamestop does sell new games the majority of their yearly sales are through used games, and that would be a huge hit on their revenue. Though Sony has not commented on the patent filing they have said previously that they are not interested in stopping the sale of second hand games. However, it is said that what was allegedly filed by Sony is centered around a tech patent which would potentially see Sony closing out the second hand game market by using RF tags to tie discs to a single console.

From a business stand point I can understand why this would make sense. They are a company out to make money and I would imagine that the resale of used games would probably hurt them in the long run as they see little to no money come from these games sold second hand. As a consumer however, I hate the idea of this because I have traded and bought my fair share of used games. The average retail price of a new game for Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 is around $60.00. Add in the cost of downloadable content and this can definitely add up depending on how many games you purchase a year.

So far these are just rumors and nothing official has come out from either Gamestop or Sony. There has been talk that Microsoft might pursue the same route but again these are just rumors for now. If something like this were to happen how would you feel about it?